Intersectionality will explicitly influence what we will do for the rest of the semester. This term was first highlighted by Kimberle Crenshaw. It is a methodology and political position that looks at the relationships between multiple social relations, oppressions, and subjectivities. In other words, how do gender, race, class, ability, sexuality, age, dis/ability interact together to achieve stunning levels of social inequality and/or privileges? ​Racism, sexism, homophobia, and religious intolerance do not act independently of one another. Instead, in intersectionality studies, we talk explicitly about multiple systems of oppression that intersect.

The First Assignment:Video Refresher

By this point in your gender studies major, you should be very familiar with intersectionality. Watch this video of Kimberlé Crenshaw talk about its origins for her as well as her most current work.

The Second AssignmentChoose 1 Pertinent​Essay

Two essays by Kimberlé Crenshaw, "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics" AND "Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color," catalyzed the explicit focus and naming of intersectionality. You should have read oen or both by now in the major. If you want to go back,Click here for "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex."OR, Click here for "Mapping the Margins."

For class, read any ONE of these articles. Choose something that you think will relate well to your own research project in some way:

Vrushali Patil's “From Patriarchy to Intersectionality: A Transnational Feminist Assessment of How Far We’ve Really Come,” looks at the implications of transnational feminist theorizing and the consequences of cross-border dynamics. Click here for article.

Gail Lewis’s “Unsafe Travel” explores and critiques the reluctance to include an analysis of race within European discourses on intersectionality. Click here for article.

Mieke Verloo’s "Intersectional and Cross-Movement Politics and Policies: Reflections on Current Practices and Debates"suggests ways of dealing with the complexity of “interfering inequalities.” Click here for article.

Jennifer Jihye Chun, George Lipsitz, and Young Shin's “Intersectionality as a Social Movement Strategy” looks at intersectionality for Asian Immigrant Women Advocates. Click here for article.

Anna Carastathis’s "Identity Categories as Potential Coalitions" illuminates what is opened up by viewing identity categories as coalitions. Click here for article.

Barbara Tomlinson 's “To Tell the Truth and Not Get Trapped” identifies recurring rhetorical frameworks and tropes that appear in critiques of intersectionality that limit activism. Click here for article.

Catharine A. MacKinnon's "Intersectionality as Method: A Note" details how intersectionality has enabled crucial interventions in the law, both in the United States and internationally. Click here for article.